The evening breeze was chilly and rustling.
In Old Lin's food stall, the clanging of woks and the clamor of patrons, mixed with the scent of food, swirled around Lin Chuan and Wang Zikai.
Lin Chuan stared intently at his phone, the strange image on the screen leaving his face full of confusion.
His book had disappeared.
Ming's book had disappeared as well.
Both of their books had been pulled from the ranking list of the anti-fraud writing competition!
Inside the food stall, Old Wang, sitting opposite at a small wooden table, looked stunned. He raised an eyebrow in surprise and said, "Your book is gone too?"
"Yeah, it's not on the leaderboard anymore," Lin Chuan replied.
"Let me see."
Old Wang, a puzzled look on his face, opened the anti-fraud competition page to check the novel section rankings.
Indeed!
Lin Chuan and Ming's books were nowhere to be found.
The first place had changed to Handon's "A World Without Fraud."
"Quick, check the author's backstage!" Old Wang suggested.
At this moment.
Lin Chuan had already opened another app on his phone, the Author's Assistant app.
He logged into the author's backstage to check the situation.
In the 'Message Notifications' section, a bright red '1' appeared.
'New message notification unchecked'.
Lin Chuan's finger moved, and he immediately clicked on the '1'.
A notification appeared in front of Lin Chuan's eyes.
[Dear author, your work "All-In" has been removed and blocked due to containing risky content that violates relevant laws and regulations, as per the review process. If you have any questions, please contact your responsible editor, Youyou.]
Lin Chuan's face stiffened, his eyebrows tightly furrowed, his deep eyes flickering with threads of confusion: "Sailing Novel has also taken my book down."
"That doesn't make sense!" Old Wang said, frowning.
"I'll ask Youyou."
Lin Chuan immediately clicked on Youyou's avatar, opened the chat box, and rapidly typed out a message: "Youyou, my book has been taken down. Do you know why?"
The message was sent.
Lin Chuan took a sip of monk fruit tea.
The evening breeze blew over, and his hair, which had been neatly combed, suddenly became a bit disheveled.
Youyou, a very diligent editor, replied to Lin Chuan in less than 30 seconds: "I just found out about this too. I'm not clear on the specific reasons yet; I'm rushing back to the company right now to find out what's going on."
"Thanks for the trouble, Youyou," Lin Chuan replied.
"Lin Chuan, don't worry for the time being. I'll get back to you after I find out what happened." Even between the lines, one could sense Youyou's urgency.
"Okay/rose.jpg."
Lin Chuan put down his phone and took a deep breath.
"What did she say?" Old Wang leaned in and asked.
"Youyou doesn't know either," Lin Chuan shook his head and gave a wry smile.
"Old Lin, no need to fret over it too much, this will definitely be resolved," Old Wang consoled, and then, changing the subject, he said, "I have some good news for you to cheer you up."
Lin Chuan's eyebrows lifted: "What good news?"
Old Wang opened the anti-fraud fiction competition leaderboard and pushed the page toward Lin Chuan, pointing at one of the works: "Look, my book has risen to the 18th place, jumping up two spots at once."
Lin Chuan was startled, then cursed jokingly: "You're such a lucky dog!"
"You haven't committed a crime, nor have you written on sensitive topics, so theoretically you shouldn't be banned. Relax," Old Wang reassured earnestly.
Lin Chuan took another sip of monk fruit tea and laughed: "It shouldn't be banned."
Modu.
Youyou, wearing a long dress and a pair of pink slippers, hurried downstairs and immediately hailed a cab to rush toward the Sailing Novel office building.
The brilliant neon lights twinkled in the metropolis, and the streets, teeming with vehicles and noise, were a cacophony of honking and shouting, resonating through the city.
About half an hour later.
Youyou passed through the first floor of the Sailing Building, dashed into the elevator, got out, and then headed straight to the chief editor's office.
Whew—
Outside the office.
Youyou took a long breath to stabilize her emotions.
Then she knocked on the door: "Chief Editor."
Inside the office, the editor-in-chief, Mingyue, was also present.
"Youyou, you've come at the right time," said the chief editor, Zhang Yixing, looking up as Youyou arrived and gesturing for her to sit down.
"Chief Editor, why was Lin Chuan's 'All-In' taken down?" Youyou sat down, her face showing urgency, and got straight to the point.
Lin Chuan was her treasure trove author.
She had watched "All-In" lead far ahead in readership and hold steady at the top of the list, likely to lock in first place and advance to the next round.
In the second round of selection, the performance of "All-In" should not be too low in theory.
After all, it was at the top during the first round, and a sudden drop in the second round would typically indicate foul play.
But this was a writing competition co-organized by the Anti-Fraud Center and Sunshine Film and Television, aimed at promoting anti-fraud awareness to the public. The eyes of the crowd are sharp, and there was no room for foul play.
Therefore, as long as Lin Chuan made it to the second round with good results, Youyou was planning on pushing him toward the 'Heavenly King' status.
The anti-fraud competition award carried much more weight than ordinary writing competitions!
To put it this way.
For the book "All-In," she was even more eager to win an award and secure an adaptation opportunity than Lin Chuan was.
She needed achievements.
Lin Chuan needed results.
They complemented each other.
But unexpectedly,
Lin Chuan's "All-In" was suddenly taken down!
Without any warning!
This directly declared bankruptcy to the online writer-to-god plan that Youyou had laid out for Lin Chuan.
Chief editor Zhang Yixing sighed deeply and looked at Youyou, "Youyou, taking down 'All-In' wasn't a decision made by Sailing Novel."
Editor-in-chief Ming Yue patted Youyou's hand, her voice somewhat heavy, "The situation with this takedown is very different from the usual removals and blocks of works."
Youyou's face froze, and her heart skipped a beat, she caught the implication in Sister Ming Yue's words, "Is it someone from above?"
"Yes, the directive came directly from the Cyberspace Administration, notifying us to take down 'All-In' immediately," Zhang Yixing nodded.
Youyou's lips turned somewhat pale, "Did they give any reasons?"
'All-In' is suspected of violations, but the specific details have not been disclosed," Zhang Yixing exchanged a look and both shook their heads.
Editor-in-chief Ming Yue continued, "Not only Lin Chuan's 'All-In', but Ming's 'The Years I Was Tricked into the Factory Area' was also taken down."
Youyou was taken aback again, "The Years I Was Tricked into the Factory Area' has also been taken down, are there any other works that have been removed?"
"No, so far only these two have been discovered to be removed by directives from above," Ming Yue said.
In the office.
There was silence among them.
"Is there any way we can help Lin Chuan get unbanned?" Youyou pondered a bit and then asked with a bit of a bite to her lower lip.
"A directive from above is for us just to follow, and if we want to get unbanned, all we can do is write an appeal report. But submitting an appeal report doesn't mean it's likely to be approved for unbanning," Zhang Yixing voiced the difficulty.
Ming Yue nodded, "Moreover, we don't even know the reasons for the blocking and removal."
"Could it be possible it's because of the author's identity?" Youyou speculated.
"Author's identity?"
Zhang Yixing and Ming Yue looked at each other and slightly furrowed their brows.
Youyou then explained,
"Ming claims to have escaped from a factory area, so 'The Years I Was Tricked into the Factory Area' spread as an autobiography."
"And Lin Chuan's 'All-In' shares several elements similar to 'The Years I Was Tricked into the Factory Area'."
"So, could it be possible that Lin Chuan was banned by mistake?"
Inside the office.
Zhang Yixing and Ming Yue were both startled; if Youyou's speculation was true, then Lin Chuan indeed had the possibility of being unbanned.
For Zhang Yixing, as the chief editor of Sailing Novel, the fact that Comrade Lin Chuan topped the anti-fraud essay contest list was certainly a pity.
But Sailing Novel had plenty of participating authors with good strength.
Currently.
Both Lin Chuan and Ming's novels had been taken down. But Handon's "A World Without Fraud" quickly filled the vacancy at the top of the list.
Influent author 'Tianya's "True and False" was close behind.
That is to say, Sailing Novel's author lineup had already dominated first and second place on the list.
But for Youyou, Lin Chuan was the only author under her that could dominate the top of the list.
So, Youyou cared a lot more about it.
'Ring ring ring—'
Zhang Yixing's cell phone started to ring.
Youyou and Ming Yue fell silent again.
"Hello, is there any new information?" Chief editor Zhang Yixing answered the call and asked.
Youyou couldn't hear the voice on the phone, but she saw the astonishment and disbelief on Zhang Yixing's face.
"You're saying he was taken away in the middle of the night by someone at his door?"
"Has the situation become this serious?"
"Is it possible to find out some internal information?"
"Okay, okay, I understand."
Zhang Yixing hung up the phone and then looked at Youyou, "This has developed beyond our expectations."
Youyou and Ming Yue both turned their heads to look at Zhang Yixing.
Zhang Yixing took a deep breath, his tone somewhat grave, "Ming has even been taken away for investigation."
Youyou's pupils contracted, "Taken away for investigation?"
"Yes!" Zhang Yixing nodded heavily.
Ming Yue's eyes turned, and after a brief thought, "Then it's not just a simple book ban."
Upon hearing this, Youyou's breathing became a little rapid. She drank two sips of tea to calm herself a bit.
But concerning Lin Chuan, how could Youyou calm down?
She immediately sent Lin Chuan a message:
"Darling, there are two preliminary pieces of news now."
"One is that both your and Ming's books have been banned by those above, the specific reasons unknown."
"Two is that Ming has already been taken away for an overnight investigation."
"In this novel, did you write any illegal or criminal content that led to an improper direction, or any other such issues?"
Youyou sent many messages, a whole string of them.
At Old Lin's big stall, Lin Chuan and Wang Zikai were still having dinner.
The food was ordered, time to eat.
Lin Chuan saw the string of messages from Youyou and felt a touch of warmth in his heart. He replied, "Youyou, don't worry, I haven't engaged in any criminal activities. And the novels I wrote don't cover those topics either..."
Lin Chuan was replying to the messages.
Suddenly, he noticed a police car parked by the curb, and two police officers in uniform got out of the vehicle.
They scanned the customers of Old Lin's big stall and then fixed their gaze on Lin Chuan.
Lin Chuan looked at the newcomers and chuckled, "They've come to haul me away so quickly?"

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